breathe out the hallelujah
by abbyli
Summary: he watches this tiny creature snuffle and sigh, unable to believe that this little miracle was actually theirs. killian/emma, henry


title:** breathe out the hallelujah**  
summery:** he watches the tiny baby snuffle and sigh, unable to really believe that this tiny creature is his.**  
pairing:** killian/emma, henry is** f**eatured**  
rating: **K**  
disclaimer:** i own nothing except little baby** **penelope.**  
notes:** just a special gift to my fellow captain swan shippers after sunday's episode. the brief minutes of captain swan were so adorable. **

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_**breathe out the hallelujah**_

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He is amazed. Absolutely amazed.

In his three hundred years of life, he had never seen anything as beautiful, as miraculous, as this tiny creature right now. Well, maybe except for her mother.

She had been born less than three hours before, coming into the world with a scream on her lips and mischief in her eyes.

"She's going to be just like you," her exhausted mother had whispered as the nurse places the little angel in her arms for the first time. "I can see it already."

He chuckles weakly, slipping down beside her on the bed, his eyes taking in the shock of jet black hair and the sea green eyes. He ignores the tears that burn behind his eyes, not even bothering to try to swipe them away. There's no point.

And now, Emma Swan Jones slept peacefully for the first time in months, their son curled up next to her on the bed.

He sat at the edge, leaning gently over the bassinette, their tiny daughter breathing in and out in such an even way that it was almost like a lullaby. She gently shifts in her sleep, pressing an itty-bitty fist to her open mouth. A lock of raven hair drifts down her forehead, resting right above her eyes. Her tiny fingers straighten carefully, showing just how small she is.

He watches her, in absolute awe at her beauty. She is almost as beautiful as her mother-almost.

But things start to race through his mind, thoughts of what to do when she gets older and begins her own life.

When she begins dating-he'll run through any boy who comes near her with his sword.

And then he thinks about her first steps...her first words...

He can practically see her. What she'll be like...

And he's almost glad he wasted three hundred years on a ridiculous revenge mission against Rumpelstiltskin.

Because he never would have met Emma, fell in love with her, became a father to Henry, or created this little miracle right here.

**/**

"Are you ever going to sleep?"

Emma's voice is gentle and soothing, like the beating of a dove's wings.

"Aye, I thought you were, love," he murmurs, turning on his heel to face his wife.

She is still curled on her side in bed, her long halo of hair cast behind her. Henry's chin rests on her shoulder, his nose in her neck, still dead to the world but oh so an angel like his little sister. A tiny smile plays on her lips and she presses a kiss to Henry's forehead, not daring to move a muscle for fear of waking the twelve year old up.

"I was," she whispers. "But there was a body missing from the bed."

"I couldn't sleep," he responds softly. "I couldn't stop looking at her."

She smiles knowingly, easing her head down into the pillow once again. "I was so scared when she was her way. I thought that I wouldn't be able to do all of those wonderful things that a mom does. I missed out on the first ten years of Henry's life because I was too afraid. I was terrified that I would have screwed up his life to the greatest extent."

"I highly doubt that you would have, love."

She doesn't answer, her eyes fixed on something in the distance that he cannot see. Something that he knows is there in her mind.

He resumes looking at their children, his eyes moving back and forth from Henry's face, to their daughter's long lashes as they rested against her full and round cheeks.

"I didn't think it would be possible to be this happy," he finally murmurs, pulling her out of her thoughts. "But I am...is it possible?"

"I have wondered the same thing so many times," she whispers. "And it is possible. Just look at them."

And he does. They are all he can see.

**.**

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"You need to tell me what the hell you are doing here, Neal. Or should I say, Baelfire?"

The elder man glared viciously for a moment before taking another draft from his bourbon. He set the drink down, his fingertip swirling over the top of the glass.

"When I found out who Emma really was, I had to let her go. There was no way I was going back to that world."

"And yet here you are, looking at the man who stole your mother away from your cowardly father. If you want anything, Baelfire, than have it out with me. Leave Emma and Henry alone."

"That's just it, Jones," Neal replies softly. "I want nothing to do with you or with my father. All I want is to let Henry know the truth about me and why I left. He has the right to know."

"Sorry," Killian snaps. "You're not getting near either one of them."

And with that, he pushes himself off of the bar stool and exit's the bar in three great strides. He can feel Neal right behind him, ready to lay claim.

"He's my son, Hook!" Neal yells once they are out into the open air. "He is mine!"

"No, he's not. He's mine!" Killian whirls around on his heel, practically nose to nose with the other man. "Where the hell were you these past eleven years? Where were you when Henry would wake up screaming from a nightmare? Where were you when Emma became sheriff of this town? Where were you?! Not here! I was there. I was there for all of it. I was there when Henry had his eleventh birthday, I was there to comfort him after a nightmare when his mother was stuck at work, I was there when Emma turned thirty, I was there! You weren't!"

With a violent push, Killian shoved the Dark One's son away from him.

"Because you think that you took over for a measly two years doesn't make you Henry's father, Hook. You are a pirate and you always will be. It doesn't matter if you were that lost little boy from all those years ago that took me on an adventure before allowing yourself to grow up a bit. You did still become that pirate. You're not a husband, you're not a father."

"And neither are you," Killian snarled. "Stay the hell away from my family."

**.**

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He lets out a small sigh, his eyes on the small boy in Emma's arms. Emma has dropped back off once again, the exhaustion overtaking her. Her arms have circled around her boy again, her chin resting on top of his shaggy haired head.

The one person that gave him the hope and the promises that he so desperately craved had been Henry. The boy had given him so much to think about, to be thankful for. He had been the first one to reach out to him in this one-pony town and offer him the friendship he didn't know he had needed for so damn long.

That boy was his son.

With a silent step, he leans over the bed, pressing a soft kiss to the boy's hair.

"I love you, Henry."

His eyes dart back to the small bassinette where the baby is still asleep. She lets out another loud snuffle and her eyes open, revealing two pools of ocean green. So like her mother's...

"Hey there, baby girl," he breathes, a long finger coming down to trace the lines of her small hand. He doesn't remember ever seeing anything as tiny as this remarkable miracle, ten little fingers, ten little toes.

Her hand opened and her fingers splayed, wrapping around his fingertip in one smooth motion. His heart skips a beat, remembering Emma telling him about a moment like this while still pregnant. A moment like this that stays forever.

"I love you too, little penny from heaven."

Penelope.

A name fitting for a princess and a pirate. Princess Penelope, kind and compassionate, caring and headstrong.

Or Penny Jones, the free spirited, joyful, sneaky, loving pirate who wanted to see the world.

"I like it," comes a voice from behind him. His head turns and he sees both Emma and Henry are awake. "Penelope Jones."

He didn't even have to say it aloud for them to know what he was thinking. It was the bond that their little family shared.

He then leans down, gently lifting Penelope up into his arms. The baby lets out a sleepy yawn, her body shaking in a wriggle, and then she settles down into the comfortable crook of his arms. He slowly walks over to the bed and sits down on the edge, Emma going to her knees on the mattress and resting her chin on his shoulder. Henry leans against the edge of the frame, his fingers linked with his mother's as the family takes in the new breath of life.

Suddenly, Henry gently pulls away from his family and walks over to where his backpack lays on the chair near the door. From it, he pulls out his storybook, flipping it to the last few pages.

"What are you doing, kid?" Emma asks softly.

"I just wanted to see," Henry says carefully. And then he brings the book back over to his parents and baby sister, setting it gently on the bed.

Killian peers closer, seeing a painted picture of them all displayed on the page. His eyebrows rise as he glimpses himself seated on a hospital bed, Penelope in his arms, Emma and Henry beside them.

"'And he named her Penelope, hoping to keep both sides of who the new little princess alive in her. She was as beautiful as the princess that she was and was going to be as spunky as the pirate that she would become,'" Henry read aloud. "'With Penelope's birth, the family was finally complete.'"

He can feel a tear land softly on his shoulder, dissolving into the fabric. "Love, are you all right?"

Emma smiles, swiping at the tears that continue to slip down her cheeks. "Of course." She looks back at Henry. "Then what happens, kid?"

Henry glances up at his mother and father, a smile on his lips. His finger points to the words that are embossed in gold at the bottom of the page, reading them aloud. "'And they lived, happily ever after.'"

**/**

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**Call me a cornycheeseball but I wanted some captain swan fluff. i think we are going to have to wait a while for more captain swan, once all of this neal/baelfire nonsense is over. well, it's not nonsense, i'm curious to find out what happens too but i am so addicted to captain swan right now it's not funny.**

**be sure to check out my more serious captain swan fic 'abraham's daughter'. it'll shock you! **


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